Payments for Ecosystems / Environmental Services (PES)

Nature gives us a lot: water, timber, minerals, biodiversity, food, clean air… But the perception that natural capital is endless and free leads to overuse and under-investment – and we constantly hear that there's not enough money to invest in the environment. The 22nd Poverty Environment Partnership conference asked how we can shake the piggy bank to give something back to nature

Seasonal fishing bans are helping to recover stocks of Bangladesh's national fish, the hilsa. Bigger fish are fetching better prices and – from traders to retailers − many people along the value chain are benefiting. But a new IIED study shows how one group is slipping through the net: the fishermen and women

Market-based instruments, such as payments for ecosystem services (PES) and conditional social transfers (CSTs), can be used to promote social and environmental objectives. This project will look at PES and CST schemes at both national and sub-national levels in eight countries. The aim is to inform the design of practical solutions for tackling poverty and improving ecosystems.

Policy measures to tackle poverty often overlook environmental impacts, while environmental policies do not always deliver for the poor. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require both – so how can governments combine efforts?

What's next for schemes that pay communities to protect local ecosystems? This is what leading researchers and practitioners in the field came together to discuss at IIED's conference in Edinburgh last week

In the wake of predictions that the oceans will be fishless by 2050, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has produced an animation to showcase its work on the economics of marine and coastal fisheries

IIED and development organisation Hivos have today launched a two-year strategic partnership to provide research-based policy advice to improve sustainable food systems and access to energy in developing and emerging countries.

The International Institute for Environment and Development will hold a meeting on 21 March 2014 in Edinburgh to explore ways to make schemes that compensate protectors of natural resources fairer and more inclusive.

A pioneering scheme that could boost stocks of a fish that feeds millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Myanmar may be a model for other fisheries, but would be more effective if it changed in five ways, says a study published today by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

The International Institute for Environment and Development will launch our latest book, Economic Incentives for Marine and Coastal Conservation: Prospects, Challenges and Policy Implications on 28 November.

IIED and partners have launched a project that aims to conserve the most important fish species in the cuisine of Bangladesh — the hilsa — by redesigning a system that rewards people who help to protect it.

The environmental community has been rightly wary of markets. But payments for environmental services can play a role in protecting nature, so long as governments guide, govern and regulate such markets.

The International Institute for Environment and Development has published seven briefing papers on topics that will feature in the Rio+20 summit and IIED’s Fair ideas conference, also in Rio, on 16-17 June.

Asking poor households how much they would be willing to pay to protect a river in Thailand can help put a tangible price-tag on the river’s benefits — from clean water to flood control — and realistically assess the costs of overexploitation and degradation.

Payments for environmental services (also known as payments for ecosystem services or PES), are payments to farmers or landowners who have agreed to take certain actions to manage their land or watersheds to provide an ecological service.